No more doubles?
CDU presents reform proposal for ARD and ZDF
January 13, 2024, 8:14 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
How should public broadcasting be positioned in the future? The CDU adopts its ideas for ARD and ZDF at the closed meeting in Heidelberg. One thing in particular should be avoided in the future: double transmissions.
The CDU is calling for far-reaching reforms in public broadcasting. “Tasks, structures and costs must be put to the test and deficits in quality, balance and diversity of opinion in the program offerings must be remedied,” says a resolution by the CDU federal executive board, which was announced at the end of a closed meeting in Heidelberg.
ARD and ZDF must complement each other better in terms of content and concentrate the journalistic competition on news offerings, says the decision, which is based on a paper by a CDU commission headed by Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff. Any additional content should be bundled and merged. The ZDF should “focus on offering a national program, the ARD should focus on a regional program.” The guiding principle must be the principle of “less of the same”.
Double broadcasts by ARD and ZDF would therefore have to be ruled out. Major social events such as royal weddings should only be broadcast live by public broadcasters if private broadcasters do not do so on a sufficiently free-to-air basis.
According to the resolution, the CDU is also in favor of merging special interest and topic channels. A further development of Arte and 3sat into a new European culture and knowledge channel under the responsibility of one of the institutions should also be examined. Media policy is fundamentally a matter for the federal states.